Castro foes hold meeting in Havana

Cuban leader ignores unprecedented caucus

May 21, 2005|By Gary Marx, Tribune foreign correspondent.

HAVANA — In a bold and unprecedented gathering, more than 150 Cuban opposition activists sat under the shade of mango and orange trees to demand freedom for the island's political prisoners and an end to Cuba's one-party state.

Many opposition leaders feared Cuban authorities would disrupt the meeting, which was several years in the planning, and arrest the conferees.

But the first day of the invitation-only, two-day gathering of the Assembly to Promote Civil Society went smoothly as delegates opened the meeting by singing the Cuban national anthem and chanting "Libertad!" -- freedom.

At one point, a delegate shouted, "Down with Fidel Castro!"

The delegates responded, "Down with him!" It was a stunning display in a country where public protests are rare.

"No state, no regime, no party has the right to control the entire life of a nation. That's why we are here," Martha Beatriz Roque, a former political prisoner and key conference organizer said in opening remarks.

While Castro has not commented publicly on the meeting, he long has accused opposition leaders of acting as "mercenaries" of an aggressive U.S. government out to topple him. U.S. officials and opposition figures deny the charges.

President Bush spoke to the gathering in a taped message projected from a laptop computer, vowing to support Cuba's internal opposition as long as Castro is in power.

"The tide of freedom is spreading across the globe, and one day soon, it will reach Cuban shores," Bush said in his traditional May 20 speech recognizing Cuban Independence Day. "No tyrant can stand forever against the power of liberty."

"Viva Bush!" the delegates responded as they rose to their feet.

But the assembly was marred by the absence of Oswaldo Paya, the leader of the Varela Project, which has collected thousands of signatures in support of a referendum calling for free elections and other civil liberties.

Arguably Cuba's foremost opposition figure, Paya issued a statement Thursday blasting the assembly as "a fraud against the opposition" and accusing its organizers of trying to "sabotage" his reform efforts.

Paya and Roque strongly disagree on how best to bring about a transition to democracy, with Paya more inclined toward consensus while Roque adheres to a more confrontational approach.

Paya's statement reflects the deep divisions within Cuba's tiny opposition movement, which is little known on the island.

Dissident groups also are heavily infiltrated by Cuban intelligence, exacerbating tensions and infighting, according to diplomats and experts.

"The dissident movement suffers all sorts of debilities," said Mark Falcoff, a Latin America scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank in Washington.

"It just doesn't strike me that a meeting of 150 dissidents in and of itself is that significant," Falcoff said.

Western diplomat's praise

But one Western diplomat in Havana disagreed, saying the meeting showed the resilience of Cuba's internal opposition.

"The main significance is that it happened at all," said the diplomat, who asked not to be identified. "Despite all the pressure on the opposition, there are still people willing to stand up and show that they are willing to change things."

While conference organizers proclaimed the assembly a success, the turnout was lower than expected because Cuban authorities allegedly prevented some activists from attending the meeting and threatened others, participants said.

Enrique Duarte, an official with a group representing political prisoners from the eastern province of Guantanamo, said his organization's president was forced off a bus and sent home by Cuban authorities as he was traveling to Havana.

Juan Ramon, a representative from a small opposition group in the eastern city of Santiago, said police threatened to throw him in prison if he took part in the assembly. He came anyway.

"I am here because I have a right to be here," said Ramon, 40. "We are all afraid. This is an authoritarian government that can do anything."

Europeans expelled

Cuba also expelled four European lawmakers and several journalists in the week leading up to the gathering. Among them was a Czech senator and German lawmaker who were picked up at their hotel Thursday evening and put on flights to Europe.

"It's unacceptable because they didn't commit any crime," said Stanislav Kazecky, a Czech diplomat who was among a handful of U.S. and other foreign envoys, attending Friday's event. "They had visited some dissidents."

Falcoff said the Cuban government might have allowed Friday's assembly to go forward to stem the diplomatic fallout in Europe caused by the expulsions.

In late January the 25-nation European Union lifted sanctions that had been imposed on Cuba after 75 opposition figures were arrested and given lengthy prison sentences in the spring of 2003.

But the EU, whose members have been historically among the island's most important sources of foreign investment and trade, is to review policies toward Cuba next month.

"What I do not believe is that this is a sign of a new opening" in Cuba, Falcoff said.